What We Do

Our Services:
It’s always in the details

These are the core web development, design, research, programming and search engine marketing services that we offer. There are of course, countless other services that fall under these categories as well. If you’re unsure if we do it, give us a jingle, send us an email, or start a chat and we’ll be happy to answer any questions.

Programming is a past time for some and a passion for others. For A55 it’s always been the core of our business. We use programming to create software that either doesn’t exist or at the least doesn’t exist how we need it to. Our most recent project is now in full sales mode and awaiting US and Canadian patent approval. We get asked about programming all the time and we are always happy to listen to your ideas (in confidence) and let you know if we think it will work. We will never take on a programming project that doesn’t fit with our philosophies or that we don’t see merit in. That translates to us not taking your money for something we know is not going to work, already exists at saturation or is just a plain, old, bad idea, just for the sake of making a buck. We are often heavily invested in our programming projects, so we take them very seriously.

What should you know about programming? Well, if you have a great idea that you want to get off the ground there is a lot you should understand before you embark on this long journey. The key to that sentence is long. Programming takes a long time, is very error prone and for those who like closure – well, it never really ends. In order to have a successful piece of software you will forever be tweaking, changing, adding and improving it – especially if you have customers who are driving your innovation.

Do you have a programming or software project on the horizon? Let us know what it is and where you think we can help!

Web design is our bread, butter and beer. We’ve seen trends come and go and come back again and that’s fine by us because it doesn’t change our process one bit. We develop using WordPress and we make no secret about it. You’ll hear lots about this in your quest for quotes some good, some bad, because everyone has an opinion on the matter. What matters to us is your security, the security of your customers, and a million other factors like load time and of course user experience. What should matter to you is the fact that we can turn around a WordPress site in a fraction of the time it used to take to build from scratch and you have access to the largest open source library of designers and developers in the world. Translation? If you want to add something outside of the box (calendars, donations, newsletters, video, shippping calculators, etc.), there is a 99% chance that a WordPress plugin already exists for what you want and we don’t need to get into custom programming to make it happen for you. Translation? You save time and money.

Overall WordPress allows us to build you an amazing website in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. Full disclosure – We don’t even build custom sites for ourselves anymore, because…why? The website you’re looking at right now was started on a Monday and went to QA (Quality Assurance) that very Friday. So you tell us: Why exactly do you want go custom again?

Interested in comparing a custom website to a WordPress website? Hit us up for more info!

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which loosely means where your website ranks on Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. etc. There are 10 spots on Google’s first page and everyone wants to be top dawg. We can do that. We do it well and the easiest way to check how well we do at it, is to ask us for a list of terms that we are currently positioning clients for and search them yourself.

SEO is great if you’re looking for the most transparent form of marketing. We provide full research into key terms that actually get searched by humans not robots. Beware the SEO company that sells you on key terms that have no search volume, but sound like they might be good. They aren’t. Beware of SEO companies that say they can get you to the top of an organic search by next week. They’re lying. They can’t. SEO takes time and a lot of regular, consistent behind the scenes work. We caution our clients that it can take at the very least 3 months to start seeing significant positional gains. It can take 6 months to get you to the first page AND you need to maintain that once you get there! For every month you don’t maintain your position there is someone just as eager to take your spot.

SEO. Not for the faint of heart, not a quick solution, not cheap, but hands down the best return for your marketing dollars spent.

Interested in some baseline reporting? Give us a sign and we’ll run you some reports.

Research and development is the cool stuff (not really) that we do that takes years of work and dedication and results in a new software product or service being unleashed. It’s the trial and error stuff. The stuff you see on whiteboards that makes no sense and the stuff that is downright frustrating when you’re immersed in it 24/7. It’s also the most rewarding of course, because nothing worth having comes easy. After countless hours, and rewinding weeks and months of code and banging your head to get those breakthroughs and see your software take shape, enter alpha, switch to beta and then get a V1 release it really is akin to watching your children grow. Not quite, but it sounds good and it technically could be that exciting to nerds.

All programming projects start with research that leads to development and all good and worthy projects spend a lot of time in this phase. A lot of them even circle back just when you think you’re ready to release. If you’ve started a project, even a basic one and your developer hasn’t provided you with any research or asked any questions, start backing out now. They don’t know what they are doing. Even our most basic website comes with a sitemap for your approval out of the gates – otherwise how do we know we’re all on the same page?

If you want to learn more about the levels of R&D let us know. We’d love to bore you with whitepapers.

Finally some fun stuff. Branding. It’s more than a logo. It’s more than picking some colors. It’s the experience. The tone. The customer. The feedback. The culture. It’s all BS really; we aren’t saving lives with branding, but hey, it makes the world a prettier place in some cases.

So what can we do with branding? Lots. It comes through in your logo and tagline sure, but there’s also a tone to be set through your use of verbiage and don’t even get me going on typography. Are you causal and approachable? Are you elite and exclusive? Who you want to be really comes through in your messaging and that’s a whole other space that we love to play in.

We have done branding and messaging and packaging and even print (yuck) for startups, re-do’s and mom and pops and pretty much every industry you can think of. It never gets old because every client is different. The only thing we ask is that you trust our judgement, trust the process and keep an open mind as we work towards your final identity. My advice is always the first version is usually the best, but that won’t stop you from wanting to see three more!

What will it cost?

We’re all about transparency. We generally start with a base amount which is broken down into hours. We always note those hours in your statement of work. We also note what is included in that cost so there really should be no surprises – if you read, comprehend and of course ask any questions. Once your hours are up we let you know. From that point forward we charge on an hourly basis going forward or we can provide a re-quote if the scope of the project has taken on a new life. All of our hours are tracked to the minute using time tracking software and reports are always available for our customers to review – again transparency, otherwise why even Internet? Do you have a programming or design project you need a quote for? Hit us up for some numbers!

But Your Website Is Still Everything.

When we first started in this industry a website was a nice to have not a need to have. Times have changed. If you’re thinking of your website now as an add on, or an additional expense that you might cut out, or scrimp on, then you really need to give your head a shake. A subtle shake – we wouldn’t want you to get hurt, but seriously now, a website is everything and should be considered one of your biggest marketing expenses. Read on.

If you don’t have a brick and mortar location then factor in that your website takes it’s place and prepare to spend accordingly. By accordingly we mean the cost of what your brick and mortar store would be to set up, lease and maintain. Shocked? Well think of it this way. Your website will be your first and only chance to convince people to buy from you. Your website will not only need to look 100% but it will need to be functional, responsive, secure and marketable. So if you thought you could avoid costs by “just” going with a website instead of a storefront, well call someone else because we hate to see people waste their time.

If your website is your first point of contact (Spoiler Alert: It is!) then prepare to spend money every month on items not only related to hosting and security, but also on regular maintenance. Technology changes rapidly. A website, app and especially programming elements can break for a multitude of reasons and you need to be prepared for those phone calls and have a budget ready. If the company you are looking to hire doesn’t have maintenance costs outlined and/or doesn’t discuss hosting with you, then run for the door because you’ll pay for it later when you show up to get your site redesigned with us. You aren’t getting a good deal by leaving these things out you are just delaying a migraine for later.

Are you using your website as your P.O.S. (Point of Sale) well you don’t want people to leave your site thinking that your website is a P.O.S (we’ll let you figure that one out), so you and the company you hire need to put some thought into this. How will you ship your stuff? How will they pay for your stuff? What information will you collect? What will you store? What currency and cards will you accept and how? Who is going to format all of those pictures? There are so many factors to consider and the more products you have the more maintenance and set up is required. For more on the complexities of programming read this.

These are just a few of the things to consider when hiring a website design company. There are countless more depending on the type and purpose of your website and we’ve unfortunately seen it all. Finding a good website design company comes down to communication and comprehension.